Intimate Space, Entangling Threads
Artist: Naomi Okubo
June 8–August 3, 2024
Naomi Okubo, Anticipation (part), 2023. Acrylic on raw canvas, 12.5 x 16.1 inches ©Naomi Okubo, courtesy of Fou Gallery
(New York—June 8, 2024) Fou Gallery is pleased to present “Intimate Space, Entangling Threads” introducing works by the artist Naomi Okubo. Drawing from her experience of living in Tokyo and throughout the pandemic in New York, Okubo turns to life within a family structure and weaves a narrative that explores the concept of "home” in her paintings, glass sculptures, sewing work, and installations. The richness and excess in patterns and colors are no doubt mesmerizing, but it is this diffusion of focal points that highlights the artist’s myriad senses and emotions tied to home.
Whether depicting a house on fire, hands kneading bread, or lush botany thriving within enclosed greenhouses, Okubo’s exquisitely composed paintings are all inspired by her interest and experiences related to the domestic environment. She often places her portraits in such fantastical renderings of “closely glazed spaces" hidden amongst beautiful embellishments. The multifaceted and ambiguous representation of home, however, is precisely what Okubo aims to convey through her works—the paradoxical existence of socially constructed ties within the supposedly safe confines of home. Rather than employing direct expressions, Okubo embedded messages in various works in this exhibition, reflecting the reality of how various social and political issues can be buried within society.
Particularly her practice of sewing—present in her work as both work medium and motif—represents her dualistic perspective. Recognizing how stitchwork had historically tied women to their domestic sphere but also provided the means for independence and expression, Okubo opens our eyes to the multiple meanings that underlie such familiar work. Her recent works, on view for the first time, allude to issues of gender, family, and society through striking imagery and needlecraft.
Through the labor of sewing, Okubo channels her inner reflections into the creation of miniature dolls. The dolls, one of which even represents her mother, embody Okubo's familial ties and a longing for belonging. She employs dolls made of clay as a mold to cast intricate glass sculptures. The transparency of the glass imbues her creations with an ethereal quality and speaks about the intangible aspects of human experience — the unsaid, the hidden, and the subconscious. Through a translation of two mediums, Okubo creates a dialogue between form and materiality, and captures the essence of what lies beneath the surface. Each glass casting becomes a vessel for untold stories, inviting viewers to contemplate the hidden layers of their own psyche.
This time at the Fou Gallery, Okubo presents her latest work that resounds with the gallery space itself, a historical brownstone townhouse complex that has housed many generations of Brooklyn residents. Playing with interior details and perspective, Okubo’s oeuvre initiates intimate conversations between place and people. Her intervention further expands to the exterior garden, physically and conceptually extending her dialogue beyond the gallery space. Okubo’s work invites us to explore what a home can mean for us at a personal level and in the context of the tumultuous world.
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Artist
Naomi Okubo (b. 1985, Tokyo, Japan) earned her M.F.A from Musashino Art University in 2011. She lived and worked in New York from 2017 to 2019 with a fellowship from the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government, and then continued her stay under the Yoshino Gypsum Foundation's Overseas Study Program. She returned to Japan in 2020. Her work has continued to exhibit in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.A., including Fou Gallery, New York (2024), GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo (2023), ELSA ART GALLERY, Taipei (2022); Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation, Tokyo (2022); Residency Unlimited, New York (2019); Official Japanese Ambassador Residence, New York (2017); Czech Center Art Gallery, New York (2017); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2009) and Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto (2005). In 2024, she had her first solo exhibition in New York at Fou Gallery. She served as a residency artist at mh PROJECT, New York (2019); Residency Unlimited, New York (2017); Art Department of Halland Municipality, Sweden (2014). Obuko’s work can also be found in such periodicals as Pen, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine, Financial Times, Juxtapoz Magazine, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Blanc Magazine. Her work is in the public collection of Hallands Konstmuseum (Sweden).
Curators
Sharon Xiaorong Liu (she/her) is a curator, researcher, and writer based in Amherst, Massachusetts and New York. With her experience in cultural translation, she explores ways to engage local communities through curatorial projects and study groups about research-based art and history photography. Her recent exhibitions include “Retrieving and Revitalizing: From Yurakucho to Yangon” (YAU Studio, Tokyo, 2023) and “Curating the Past from the Future” (Fou Gallery, New York, 2022). Besides exhibitions, she has also written for magazines, including Artforum China, CAFA Art Info, and Ocula. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Math from Wellesley College, and obtained her master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Yale University.
Hanna Hirakawa (she/her) is a curator, translator, and creator based in Tokyo, Japan. She researches on the entangled meaning of place, research-based art, and gender issues through curatorial projects, zine-making, and other collective modes of practice. Recent exhibitions include “Creative Commons: Spaces for Collective Engagement with Gender Issues in Asia” (Gallery of the Center for Gender Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, 2024), “Retrieving and Revitalizing: From Yurakucho to Yangon” (YAU Studio, Tokyo, 2023), and “Subversive Bodies: Art, Gender, and Media” (The 5th Floor, Tokyo, 2022). She graduated from the art history department at the University of Tokyo and earned her Master’s in Curation, Global Arts at the Tokyo University of Arts.
